1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electrical device for mechanical and electrical connection to a stationary base part, with a plug-type connector that can be connected to a corresponding mating plug-type connector which is attached to the base part, the plug-type connector having a housing with at least one contact insert with several contact elements. In addition the invention also relates to an electrical plug-type connection for producing an electrical connection between an electrical device and a stationary base part, with a plug-type connector which can be attached in a floating manner to a mounting plate, and a corresponding mating plug-type connector which can be attached to the base part, the plug-type connector having a housing with at least one contact insert with several contact elements and at least one guide element, and the mating plug-type connector having a housing with at least one mating contact insert with several mating contact elements and at least one second guide element which interacts with the first guide element when the plug-type connector and the mating plug-type connector are joined.
2. Description of Related Art
The initially described electrical device is preferably a relatively large and heavy electrical device which is mechanically connected to a stationary base part and is fastened on the base part. In the completion of the mechanical connection an electrical connection takes place between the electrical device and the base part via the plug-type connector that is attached to the electrical device and via the mating plug-type connector that is located on the base part. The electrical device can be, for example, an automatic parking ticket dispenser, an information terminal or a turnstile of a pedestrian access which is attached to a mounting foundation which is used as the base part. The electrical device can easily also be a charging station for motor vehicles, a gambling machine or a lighting mast. It is common to all these electrical devices that they are relatively large and heavy devices which cannot be placed on the base part or can be only placed with effort and possibly with several individuals by hand. Moreover, the mounting or guide aids that are formed between the electrical device and the base part—for slipping or pushing the electrical device onto the base part, can have mounting tolerances which are much larger than the mounting or location tolerances with which the plug-type connector can be connected to the corresponding mating plug-type connector. This leads to the electrical connection for such large and heavy electrical devices to a stationary base part not being able to take place or only being able to take place with greater difficulties by means of plug-type connections, especially high-pin plug-type connections.
German Patent DE 38 09 605 C2 discloses an electrical device which has several modules accommodated in the housing in the form of circuit boards, a wiring backplane which connects the circuit boards electrically to one another as well as a back panel and a front panel, the inner surface of the front panel likewise having electrical modules. The electrical connection between the modules of the front panel and the circuit boards which are located in the actual housing of the device takes place via plug-type connectors with socket and plug connectors which are located on the inside of the panel and the circuit boards. To compensate tolerances between the position of the socket connectors and the position of the corresponding plug connectors, the plug-type connectors that are located in the panel are supported in a floating manner. The tolerance compensation that can be achieved thereby is, however, only a few tenths of a millimeter; this is, however, sufficient in the known electrical device since, due to the relatively small size and low weight of the panel very accurate manual guidance of the panel is possible when plugging onto the housing.
German Patent DE 695 20 197 T2 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,233 discloses an arrangement for floating mounting of an electrical device on a plate, the electrical plug-type connector, in addition to a contact insert with several contact elements, has a lateral latch device which—like the contact insert—can be inserted through a larger opening in a mounting plate. Because the openings in the mounting plate are larger than the dimensions of the contact insert and the latch devices, considerable play is formed between the plug-type connector and the openings in the mounting plate so that “blind addition” of the plug-type connector through the openings in the plate is possible. To prevent the plug-type connector from being pulled unintentionally out of the mounting plate again, retaining caps are provided that have to be plugged onto the ends of the latch device which project through the openings in the plate from the side of the mounting plate opposite the plug-type connector.
The arrangement disclosed in German Patent DE 695 20 197 T2 and the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,233 for floating mounting of a plug-type connector on a plate has the disadvantage that it can only be used where the plate is accessible after mounting of the plug-type connector from the back of the plate facing away from the plug-type connector, so that the retaining caps can be plugged onto the ends of the latch devices. Moreover the use of the additional retaining caps is disadvantageous both in production and also in mounting since there is the risk that the separate retaining caps will fall off or be lost.
Moreover, plug-type connectors which are supported in a floating manner are known from practice and have flexible fastening elements, as a result of which however only compensation of component and mounting tolerances in the range of a few tenth millimeters is possible; however this is generally adequate in the conventional field of electronics. Mounting tolerances of more than one millimeter cannot be compensated with these plug-type connectors, so that these plug-type connectors or plug-type connections cannot be used when relatively large and heavy electrical devices are to be connected to stationary base parts in which manual alignment of the plug-type connector halves directly to one another is not possible and in which the mounting tolerances of the device to the base part can be more than one millimeter.